Elon Musk is quitting the US government after a rare dispute with Trump.

Elon Musk, the billionaire, said on Wednesday that he was leaving his job with the US government.

His goal was to cut federal spending, and the move came just a few days after he had his first significant disagreement with President Trump over his key spending bill.

On his X social media page, he said, “As my time as a Special Government Employee comes to an end, I would want to thank President Donald Trump for the chance to cut down on wasteful expenditure.”

“The DOGE mission will get stronger over time as the whole government adopts it as a way of life,” he said.

The tech mogul from South Africa stated that Trump’s measure will exacerbate the debt and hinder the operations of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which has laid off tens of thousands of employees.

Musk was always by Trump’s side before he stepped back to focus on his SpaceX and Tesla companies.

He also asserted that DOGE had turned into a target for those dissatisfied with the government.

“To be honest, I was disappointed to see the massive spending bill that makes the budget deficit bigger instead of smaller and damages the work that the DOGE team is doing,” Musk said in an interview with CBS News that aired late Tuesday.

Last Monday, the US House of Representatives approved Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill act”.

It now goes to the Senate, and it is the centerpiece of his domestic plan. It offers broad tax cuts and spending cuts.

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However, those opposed to it argue that it will undermine healthcare and increase the national debt by as much as $4 trillion over ten years.

“A bill can be big or pretty.” I’m not sure if it can be both, though. In the interview, which will aired in its entirety on Sunday, Musk stated, “What I think.”

The White House attempted to downplay any disagreements about the amount the US government spends, but didn’t name Musk specifically.

Musk’s words were broadcast on X, and Trump’s Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller responded on the same platform. “The Big Beautiful Bill is NOT an annual budget bill.”

According to rules in the US Senate, all cuts to DOGE would have to be made through a different bill that targets the federal government, Miller said.

However, Musk’s words revealed a rare disagreement with the Republican president. Whom he had helped get elected again in 2024 by donating the most money to his campaign.

A “whipping boy”

As head of DOGE, Trump asked Musk to cut government spending. However, after a fast start, Musk said in late April that he would mostly be stepping back to run his companies.

In another interview, Musk discussed his dissatisfaction with The Washington Post.

He said that DOGE, an organisation based at the White House and run by young technicians, had become a target for criticism.

At the Starbase launch site in Texas, Musk expressed his dissatisfaction to the newspaper, saying, “DOGE is becoming the scapegoat for everything.” This was before SpaceX’s Monday launch.

“Anywhere bad things happened, people would blame us for them, even if we hadn’t done anything.”

According to Musk, the US system was to blame for DOGE not achieving all its goals. However, stories suggest that his bossy personality and limited knowledge of Washington’s political scene were also significant issues.

He continued, “The federal bureaucracy situation is much worse than I thought.”

“I knew there were issues, but working to improve things in DC is, to say the least, very hard.”

Musk has said in the past that he didn’t reach all of his goals with DOGE. Numerous offices either downsized or closed, and many government workers faced layoffs.

Musk’s businesses suffered during that period.

Protesters opposing the cost cuts targeted Tesla stores, and arsonists even set some of the electric cars on fire. The company’s profits dropped.

“Teslas were being set on fire. Why would you do that? Musk told the Post, “That’s not cool.”

Since his plans to settle Mars have been dashed several times, Musk also been focusing on SpaceX.

The company’s prototype Starship burst over the Indian Ocean on Tuesday, resulting in the most recent casualty.

The businessman also said last week that he would spend less on politics. He had already spent about $250 million helping Trump.

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Elon Musk, the wealthy tech mogul, is always in the news.

The CEO of SpaceX, Tesla, and X (previously Twitter) is the wealthiest person on the planet. He has addressed various concerns by using his influence.

Elon pushed ahead with tests on human brain chips at his company, Neuralink, which has already implanted devices in three patients.

He has also considered transforming X into a super app. He has attempted to establish his reputation in the rapidly growing field of artificial intelligence, despite previously stating that it could potentially wipe out humanity.

However, after Donald Trump won the 2024 US presidential election, Musk’s influence has continued to increase. Musk was a key, if controversial, figure in Trump’s campaign.

The president chose his self-described “first buddy” to run the Department of Government Efficiency (or “Doge” for short, after Musk’s favourite cryptocurrency, Dogecoin), which was just created.

Musk denied a “hostile takeover” while his agency, which is not an official government department, made cuts.

One example is the restructuring of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Each year, the company contributes tens of billions of dollars in aid to various countries.

But Tesla lost sales and money because some buyers didn’t like what Musk was doing.

Some people online have referred to Tesla vehicles as “Swasticars” due to Musk’s controversial arm gesture at a gathering for Trump’s re-election.

He said that he would be leaving the White House on May 28.

A few days earlier, he had said bad things about one of Trump’s most important plans, which included tax breaks worth trillions of dollars and a promise to spend more on defence.

Musk told CBS News, which is a US-based partner of the BBC, that he was “disappointed” by the plan because it “undermines” the work he did for the president to cut spending.

He said that Doge’s work to cut government spending would continue and “only get stronger over time” after he left the White House.

Elon Musk has been involved in political trouble in more than one country.

In the UK, Musk said that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer was “deeply complicit” in “mass rapes in exchange for votes” by a grooming gang. Sir Keir, on the other hand, said critics were “spreading lies and misinformation”.

Elon Musk has backed the extreme right-wing party Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany and asked people to vote for it in the upcoming elections.

In both the UK and Germany, 71% of people said they didn’t like Musk, and 63% said they didn’t think he understood national problems well.